Hattie Callan

Here is the best quote coming out of the Hurricane Gustav coverage:

But the French Quarter was far from empty.

Hattie Callan, 36, weaved her way down the street Sunday, a vodka drink already in her hand and it only 9:20 in the morning. She was staying behind to watch over several houses, and she wasn't worried.

"I've got liquor, cash, food, ammo and weed," she said as she floated out of sight.

Sunflowers on May Day

Sunflowers in the city
Originally uploaded by Vitó

Today is the second annual International Sunflower Guerrilla Day! Borrowed from Treehugger.com:

Historically May Day has commemorated the coming of spring and a recognition of workers' rights. Here's another cause for its celebration: International Sunflower Guerrilla Day. It's easy, it's fun, it's slightly subversive and it brings joy to all who look upon its fruits. What could be bad?

Here's how to do it: Find a crummy, neglected and sunny public space somewhere near your place. Get some sunflower seeds, the bigger the flower, the better. Take a bottle of water and a little spade, stick or soup spoon with you to the spot. Dig a hole about 3/4 of an inch deep. Drop in a seed and water it. Return every once in a while to water it and clean off the litter. Watch the little seedling grow into full bloom by August. If you want to show your success to the world; take a picture and post it on the community website. Fellow gardeners in Brussels, London and France will be doing it too. Happy May Day, however you choose to celebrate it.

For the less subversive, one might choose to participate in the Great Sunflower Project, a citizen science activity in which people plant sunflowers in their garden and report visits by bees. Here's how participation in the project will help:

Your home, school or community garden and those around the world produce roughly 15-20% of all the food we eat. And for the urban poor, who spend 50-70% of their income on food, these gardens are a real source of good nutrition and an essential route to food security.

Whether your garden contains vegetables, fruit trees, flowers, or even medicinal plants, many of these plants must be pollinated before a fruit forms. And as the headlines for the last year have made clear, bees are under threat. Here is a link to information about some of our bees in peril.

We know very little about bee activity in home and community gardens and their surrounding environments, but we are certain that they are a crucial link in the survival of native habitats and local produce, not to mention our beautiful urban gardens. Our local pollinator populations require our understanding & protection, and to answer that call we need to determine where and when they are at work.

With enough citizen scientists collecting data, we can learn much more, much faster, about the current state of bee activity. We would love to have you join us; let’s learn about pollinators together!

Walking

I read a fascinating article in the New York Magazine last night about walking and how shoes are wrecking our ability to walk properly. It makes the case that our feet have been honed by four million years of evolution to carry us everywhere and that shoes, even the ones designed for maximum comfort, thwart the abilities of our foot to work properly. I'm not going to try to paraphrase the arguments here; read it for yourself and see if they don't make a good case for going barefoot.

But barefoot is hardly a choice for me, even when not working. Despite the fact that I walk an awful lot for pleasure, my bare soles are tender and I couldn't walk across more than a few feet of pavement without wincing and mincing, not to mention the dangers of encountering glass or dog poop. The article did suggest some footwear that is designed to allow the barefoot gait while offering some protection against our urban environments, but they tended to be ironically expensive for things trying to be so very natural.

That leaves me considering investing in moccasins. Proper ones, made of real, durable leather, not the little slippers designed only for indoor use. The New York Magazine article only mentioned moccasins in passing, but they're really the time-tested footwear for walking as close to barefoot as possible while adding protection for the foot. I found a place in Minnesota that will custom make moccasins using the outline of your foot as a template. Before I try that though I'm going to look around locally a little more and see if there isn't a moccasin-maker a bit closer to me so I could try them on first.

In the mean time, I am going to go and have a look at Vibram Five-Fingers for kayaking purposes. They look a bit silly, but also fun.

European Wall Lizards

IMG_3766
Originally uploaded by Calypso Orchid

I read an interesting article in National Geographic News about European Wall Lizards this week. A few pairs were released on a tiny island in the Adriatic Sea in the early 1970s. They reproduced unchecked and unobserved for the next thirty years and when scientists were able to return to the island (hindered previously by war) they found some astonishing changes in the lizards. Not only had the lizards changed in behavior, but their heads had become larger and they'd evolved a new structure in their intestines which allowed them to make the change from an insect-based to a plant-based diet. It's a truly astonishing rate of evolutionary change.

The article initially caught my eye because Cincinnati has been home to an introduced population of European Wall Lizards since 1951, when a handful of lizards were released by a member of the Lazarus family, they of department store fame. In fact, the lizards are sometimes known locally as "Lazarus Lizards". I've encountered them often around town; they especially seem to love Mount Adams and other areas with lots of stone walls.

Earthquake in Cincinnati!

I was just awakened (about 5:40 AM) by the windows of my bedroom rattling and my bed rocking back and forth. The shaking lasted about ten seconds. The morning news is reporting other people feeling earth tremors in the area. I've never felt an earthquake before!

According to the USGS it was a 5.4 degree quake centered in southern Illinois.

From WCPO: 5.4 Earthquake Rocks Illinois, Rattles Tri-State. We even made the world news; here's a report from the BBC.

The Return of the Cicada

WCPO reported today that Cincinnati is due to see a return of the periodic cicada this summer. I was in town for the 1991 and the 2004 emergence and those were spectacular. This year's brood is more to the east of the city than those previous emergences so I'll probably have to take a drive to see it in all its glory.

Photo by tlindenbaum by way of Flickr.

Earth Day in Cincinnati, 2008

Earth Day is Tuesday April 22nd. Here are some links to events and celebrations in the Cincinnati area.

Earth Day at Sawyer Point is the big event held April 19th from noon until 7 PM. There will be music, contests, an awards ceremony and much more.

Glenwood Gardens Highfield Discovery Garden has programs this week to celebrate Earth Day. Learn how to beautify your world by planting flowers, learn how to reduce your impact on the earth by reducing, reusing and recycling everyday products. Programs are Tuesday (April 22nd) through Saturday (April 26th) at 10:45 am, 1 pm and 4 pm; Sunday (April 27th) at 1 pm and 4 pm.

Blue Ash Nature Park (4433 Cooper Road, Blue Ash, OH 45242 513-745-8550) is hosting an Earth Day event on Friday, April 25, 2008 from 4 PM to 7 PM. This special event will include Toyota, Rumpke, Veg Head, Gorman Heritage Farm, demonstrations, free samples, family activities and more.

This Land is Your Land Earth Day Celebration Thursday, April 18 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM Fountain Square

To celebrate Earth Day 2008, Cincinnati Computer Cooperative (C3) will participate in the Recycling Collection event being held on Saturday April 19 at the Miami Township Service Department, 5900 McPicken Drive, in Clermont County from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM, and an E-Cycling event on Saturday April 26 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM at its facility, 49 Novner Drive, Cincinnati, Ohio (Woodlawn) Phone 513-771-3262.

More links to events world-wide can be found at Earthday Network.

Seahorses in London

Little seahorses have been found in the Thames river in England as far upstream as London, according to this article in National Geographic. The Thames is an ecological recovery success story. Subjected to decades of pollution, the Thames was declared biologically dead in the 1950s. Serious efforts to clean up the river began about twenty years ago and have had marvelous results. The river is the cleanest it's been since pre-industrial times and a number of extirpated species are reclaiming their old stomping grounds. In addition to the seahorses, brown trout, Atlantic salmon, dolphins, seals and one lost whale have been spotted in the Thames in recent years.

Go Local, Go Organic

As if I needed any more reasons to buy as much of my food as possible locally and/or organically produced, an article in the New York Times reports that pesticides used on food crops overseas are killing songbirds and raptors.

Did Your Shopping List Kill a Songbird?

What the Vikings were wearing back in the day

I've been interested in historical food and dress for many years. It's what makes history come alive for me - understanding what people where eating, drinking, wearing and doing for fun, rather than just knowing what war was going on or who sat on the throne at any given place and time. So I read with interest an article published on LiveScience about a Viking woman's costume found in a grave 10th century grave in Russia, though unfortunately the article doesn't say where in Russia (and it's a rather large place). The reproduction of the dress shows a brightly colored silk garment worn trailing behind and joined in the front by two metal breast shields. It must have been a costly garment, considering the bright blue color and the fabric, which was silk.

Before the invention of synthetic dyes fabrics in bright colors, such as deep blue, purple and bright red, were very expensive and therefore indicative of rank and wealth. Purple has long been associated with royalty for this very reason; the cost of harvesting this dye (collected from a marine mollusk) was so vast that the resulting cloth was out of reach for all but the wealthiest of people. The fact that this Viking garment was made from silk also indicates wealth as the cloth (or the fibers themselves) could only have come from China, a journey of many hundreds of miles.

Future Music Festival

I found out today that the Loveland Castle, Chateau Laoche will be hosting a music festival and farmer's market June 13th through the 15th. They are raising money to put a new roof on the old castle. It's a most worthy cause and I plan on attending provided I'm in town. It's just so freaking cool to have an honest-to-goodness castle nearby.


The people from England can stop pointing and laughing at me now.

Look Before You Leap

Today I learned that that BASE, as in BASE jumping, stands for Bridge, Antennae, Span and Earth. I didn't know it was meant to be capitalized so I never noticed the acronym before. I just assumed "base" meant a stable platform, as opposed to an airplane, which of course it does.

Sadly, the reason I learned this is because this guy BASE jumped off the Perrine Bridge over the Snake River Canyon in Idaho. His jump was successful, but he'd evidently neglected to make sure he knew the way out of the canyon beforehand and died of exposure after getting lost. It just goes to show, having an exit strategy is a crucial part of any major plan.

Closer to home, we are under a winter storm advisory and it's actually snowing this time. I am mounting a defense; a hearty pot of kale and white bean ragout to stave off the chill.